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Dedicated to all those at the 2002 LMH Chemists Dinner who were good-humoured/brave/inebriated enough to sing this, with especial
thanks to those who actually got it to scan because, let's face it, it doesn't

Very special thanks to Amzi F for Musical Chemistry's first ever REAL video, EDTA on Vimeo. Yay!!

I
Ligands, there’s no need to feel down,
I said ligands, when you’re floating around,
You don’t have to stay there, free and unbound –
There’s no need to be uncomplexed!

Chorus I
You’ve got to complex like EDTA,
You’ve got to complex like EDTA;
It’s got everything to be hexadentate!
It’s got six lone pairs to donate!
You’ve got to complex like EDTA,
You’ve got to complex like EDTA!
It’s ethylene-dia-mine-tetra-acet-ate!
It’s a ligand that can chelate!

Chorus II
You’ve got to complex like EDTA,
You’ve got to complex like EDTA;
It replaces all six H2Os separately,
So the entropy must increase!
You’ve got to complex like EDTA,
You’ve got to complex like EDTA;
It’s the chelate effect! It’s a favoured process!
It’s a positive delta S!

III
Ligands can you act as a pi
Donor? They can even stabilise high
Oxidation states – they’re weak field and high
Spin – the delta value’s smaller;

But if the pi* are empty
They’re acceptors lowering t2g
And increasing the gap in energy:
The ligand field splitting’s larger!